Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the study of how people attempt to influence each other through language and other symbolic structures. The study of rhetoric covers discourse that is explicitly persuasive, such as advertising, political speeches, and newspaper editorials, but it also concerns the ways in which our values and assumptions are shaped by the symbols around us. Some rhetoric courses focus on the analysis of a wide variety of texts, while in others, students sharpen their own abilities to communicate in writing and in other symbolic forms.